Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) and the district municipality of Beylikdüzü in the city will elect acting mayors on Wednesday after their mayors were arrested last Sunday on charges of corruption.
Both municipalities are controlled by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and will remain so, as Turkish laws allow whichever party holds the majority in the municipal assembly to elect its own candidate when a replacement of mayor is needed. Earlier, a local district governor was appointed as a trustee to run the municipality of the Istanbul district Şişli, after its mayor was arrested in the same probe that netted Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu and Mehmet Murat Çalık. Unlike Imamoğlu and Çalık, Şahan was arrested on terror-related offenses, under which the state automatically takes over the mayor's office without any election under the existing laws.
Media reports speculated that two district mayors of the CHP in Istanbul may be nominated to serve as acting mayor of Türkiye’s most populated city. They are Sinem Dedetaş, who helped the CHP to take back Üsküdar, a stronghold of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), in the 2019 elections, and Hasan Akgün, a veteran CHP mayor of the far-flung Büyükçekmece district on city’s European side. However, legal experts point out that authorities may invoke an obscure law barring district mayors from serving as acting mayors of metropolitan municipalities.
The CHP holds 185 seats in the 314-seat municipal assembly of the IBB, while the AK Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which are part of the nationwide People’s Alliance, had a combined number of 126 members. The Great Unity Party (BBP), once aligned with the AK Party, has two seats, while a seat is retained by an independent member.
A report by the Hürriyet newspaper says Imamoğlu favors Akgün, who won municipal elections seven times back-to-back, both for the CHP and the Motherland Party (ANAP).
If Dedetaş is elected, it will be the first time a woman will be appointed to the top seat of the IBB. Dedetaş also has close ties with Imamoğlu as she managed the city lines of IBB-run ferries before her nomination for Üsküdar mayoralty in last year’s elections. Her name has often been rumored for the CHP’s municipal candidate for Istanbul in a future vote after Imamoğlu himself was nominated for the presidency. On the other hand, reports say the CHP may go ahead with the current acting mayor, Nuri Aslan.
